In 2007 I thought Romney/Rice was going to be the ticket that faced off against Clinton/Obama and I was thrilled and excited to see it play out. The first female president and first black vice president vs the first Mormon president and the first female AND black vice president. Woulda been awesome. didn’t happen.
This year, when Republicans finally get their shit together and realize that they have no hope with Governor Perry or former Speaker Gingrich and correct their mistake they made in 07 and nominating Romney to the position he deserves this time – their only choice is for a hispanic VP.
You’ve got to have SOMEthing to counter the history of the first black president (yes, I know he’s only half black so he’s just as white as he is black but he’s the first with dark skin so dont send me dumb messages or comments on that) and “first Mormon” isn’t a landmark. no one outside of the LDS faith cares if we have a Mormon president or not and no one should. who cares?
To counter the affirmative action that took place in skyrocketing a state senator to the Washington Senate for only 2 years of accomplishing nothing but making good speeches and being charismatic and putting him in the Presidency – the Republicans need to counter with a minority pick that ISN’T an affirmative action choice.
That rules out Herman Cain, who has never been elected to any public office, and it’s not good for the parties optics to choose a black VP this cycle anyway. Answering the first black president with the first black Vice President is a lame move, won’t gain votes and should be avoided unless the possible candidates for VP who happen to be black are just so good that it can’t be avoided and that doesn’t apply this year, as congressmen Allen West (FL) and Tim Scott (SC) were only just elected in 2010.
So where to next? Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana just won reelection in November by a landslide and remains super popular. He does well in interviews that could excuse his terrible performance in the Republican response to Obama’s state of the union speech a few years ago but it’s still a stretch. The dude may be president some day but he’s super young (just turned 40 a few months ago) and has time. He’s not THAT good of a speaker to completely erase the poor teleprompter read delivery of that infamous GOP response.
That leaves Republicans with asians in the sense of what people think of when they hear asian and hispanics. Republicans have no prominent asian elected officials from which to choose so that leaves the latter and there are excellent people to choose from. Here are the top 5 with their pros and cons, ranked in order of their net-gains in my estimation from least to most:
- Jaime Herrera Beutler: Congresswoman from Washington’s 3rd District.
PRO: Womanandhispanic. ha cha chaaa.
CON: House members are usually not tapped for the VP slot and she’s too unknown/unremarkable for this to not be seen as a ploy. That could be overcome but with the “unknown” part of the equation, we just don’t know if the dame is up for it. too risky with not enough reward.
… - Brian Sandoval: Governor of Nevada.
PRO: Nevada went for Bush 2004 but Obama in 2008. A Sandoval nomination could secure the state back into the Republican column and help out in neighboring New Mexico and Colorado which also changed their 04 Republican votes to 08 Democrat ones.
CON: Short term as Governor. Endorsed Rick Perry. Is pro-choice, which won’t sit well with Republican base. in fact, it won’t be possible with Romney as the nominee because of all the smears against his abortion postion which evolved over the years from “I’m against it but it should be legal” to “I’m against it and it shouldn’t be”. Romney won’t need Sandoval on the ticket to win Nevada, either. So Sandoval’s out.
… - Susana Martinez: Governor of New Mexico.
PRO: Border state that voted for Obama in 08? Useful. Her last name? REALLY useful. A Romney/Martinez ticket, sharing the values of hard work capitalism and socially conservative values hispanics are polled to favor by a majority would switch over vast numbers of mexican-americans who had only been voting Democrat because they’ve been told that Republicans hate them and want them to fail. Argument becomes invalid when a Mexican-American is on the ballot for Vice President of the freakin country.
CON: Palin problem: she is being attacked in her home state and struggling to deal with the onslaught + personal life stuff will be dredged up with no guarantee that she will be able to handle the press and constant accusations of being stupid (the “go to” attack line against Republican candidates) which are key to being an effective candidate.
… - Marco Rubio: Senator from Florida.
PRO: An excellent speaker. A picture perfect family. Does well in interviews and speeches. Articulates American ideals exquisitely.
CON: Aside from him constantly saying he does not want the job and would rather get work done in the Senate to which he was only recently elected to in 2012: He’s Cuban and Cubans are already Republicans because their country was freakin destroyed by Communism and constantly has people attempting to escape it for that reason. The GOP’s problem is with Mexican hispanics, so Rubio’s hispanicanism isn’t a guaranteed help there. Plus, the last name Rubio is not immediately identifiable as hispanic like the other contenders’ names are and Rubio is very fair skinned so his Cubanism may be more of a sidenote fun-fact than the major selling point the GOP needs. Might be better to keep him in the senate where he wants to be until he runs for President in the future.
… - Luis Fortuño: Governor of Puerto Rico.
PRO: Unless he killed a hooker and paid off someone who saw it go down? Everything. From the accent mark over the “N” in his name to his record as Governor – dudes a winner. He does well in interviews and like Rubio, articulates small-government, pro-freedom ideals articulately and effectively.
CON: Although also not a Central or South American hispanic, he has the last name, skin tone and Spanish speaking cred that makes for such great optics and Rubio lacks, which could make up for it.
More:
UPDATE: Fortuño has endorsed Romney for president. As you can imagine, I received the news while in an office that was lit only by the light shining through descended but angled Venetian Blinds to which I responded by tenting my fingers and saying “excellent…” in a soft but sinister tone.
UPDATE: Romney wins the Puerto Rico primary by a whopping 75%
UPDATE: Okay.. brief flirtation with confidence that Fortuno would be a top tier pick is dwindling… going back to being confident that it will be Rubio…